


How Bills Become Laws

by likingandloving



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-03
Updated: 2016-02-03
Packaged: 2018-05-18 00:16:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5890675
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/likingandloving/pseuds/likingandloving
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>State Senator Ben Wyatt is trying to pass a law mandating budgets for towns in financial crisis, but Attorney Leslie Knope isn't too happy that the bill requires cutting Parks and Recreations budgets.</p>
            </blockquote>





	How Bills Become Laws

**Author's Note:**

> Hey guys! Someone sent me a prompt about a Legally Blonde AU and I thought that this would work well! It spun out of control pretty quickly, so expect pretty fair updates from this story. I'm trying to be as accurate as possible with how I portrayed the system of state laws, so if you think that something's wrong or inaccurate, feel free to leave a comment! 
> 
> Or leave a comment and kudos just because you like it. I don't mind. ;)

He’s heard of her before. He hasn’t been in the Indiana General Assembly for long, but he does know about her reputation. She was like a legend in the halls of the House and he had no doubt that he’d encounter her sooner or later. All of her stints have been ravishly going around the news; of her battles in court, her spirited opening arguments, and all of her pre-bono cases and days spent fighting for those who don’t have a voice. He admired her. The way that she always spoke with such conviciton and passion that you were sure that she had all of the time in the world to rectify all of the problems the world had to offer.

Except right now, he wasn’t feeling particularly admirable.

Not when she was standing right here in front of him, red in the face, arguing vehemently with him about a _park._

“Now, Senator Wyatt...”

“I understand, Attorney Knope, about your sentimental feelings towards this particular park of yours, but the legislation that we’re pushing--“

“--Is to stop limit funding on all Parks and Recreation departments around the state--“

“--It is _not_ to permanently limit funding but to appropriate funds from struggling local governments into more necessary departments such as eduation and transportation--“

“--Are you saying that the parks have less value than that of education--“

“--That is not what I am saying at all but there are more necessary factions of local government that--“

“--But can you put value on the beauty and recreation that parks put into society?”

Typical lawyers. The power to spin words and words around to make their argument. Ben has always prefered cold, hard facts to bending and twising them, which is why he preferred Economics to Law. He sighs, running a hand through his hair and about to interject with another point when his secretary comes in.

“Um, I’m sorry to interrupt you, Senator but your meeting with Senator Brooks is in about ten minutes.”

“Thank you, Grace.” He straightens his tie and extends his hand to the infuriating woman standing at his desk. “I’m sorry about our meeting being cut short, Atty. Knope, but I’m sure that we can find another time to discuss our differences on this bill.”

He nods at her before following Grace out into the hall into another conference room and wonders what the hell brought Attorney Leslie Knope to the General Assembly.

\---

"But I don't understand why you have to mandate the budget cuts!"

Ben rubs a tired hand over his equally tired looking face. He feels like his energy is being drained with every non-sense argument that Attorney Knope brings up that he has to defend. 

They’ve been here for over two hours and they’re arguing round and round with no end in sight. Ben was starting to get a headache and his throat was beginning to parch from all the saliva he’s probably used just arguing with her. It was like arguing with the goddamn sun.

“Again, Attorney Knope, there’s a reason why local governments who are on the verge of bankruptcy are being mandated by this bill to move funds. I worked as a budget specialist for the State for 12 years before I ran for State Senator and I guarantee you, I’ve seen towns in their worst states and we’ve had to gut budgets worse than what's in the bill just to keep the town afloat! This is to prevent baknrupty and frankly, the State Government from getting headaches.”

She makes a noise that barely sounds human as she disagrees again. Leslie Knope was the most infuriating, most irritating, most thickheaded lawyer he’s ever met.

“I understand, but there is no way that you can just determine what is essential to a town in general! It differs per _town_.” She’s practically red in the face, her anger basically leaking out her ears at this point.

“Yes, I _can_ determine what a town needs. Education, transportation, and basic governance. Parks and Recreation is a low priority department.”

“It is not!”

“Now Leslie, I understand your particular bias towards Parks and Recreation because you’re working closely with their department to try and fund a new park in Pawnee, but Pawnee’s government is also on the verge of financial disaster. If there are no budget reallocations, your city will become bankrupt and that will force more drastic measures, like terminating jobs and removing non-essential departments.”

The heavily mustached man, who Leslie introduced as one of the partners at her law firm, giggled in the corner.

“Yes, but closing down parks while the city gets back on its feet is like cutting off the oxygen that gives a town life!”

“It’s just a clause in the bill that states that closing parks temporarily while fixing budgets with specialists is the best way to do it.”

“But you’re closing parks.” Leslie says accusingly, wagging her finger.

“Because you don’t need parks to run a town!”

“Yes you do.” She pulls her laptop and a small projecter from her bag. “And I have a 142 slide Powerpoint presentation that explains why.”

Ben resists the urge to thump his head against his desk.

This was going to be a long night.

\---

“She’s here again, sir.”

“She was here last week.”

“She is persistent, sir.” Grace says, shrug in her shoulders. He knew that, but he didn’t know just how persistent she was. He probably should have listened to Representative Howser about that.

Ben huffs in exhaustion, staring at the number of papers and cups of coffee that he’s finished. He glances at his watch. Sleepless for about 29 hours. Should be the perfect time to talk to Leslie Knope. He relents, motioning for Grace to just let her in. She steps in moments later, shoulders squared and her red blazer sitting perfectly on her shoulders. She practically exudes confidence and power, but he tries not to let it shake him this time. Their last meeting had gotten a little _heated_ (to say the least) so he hopes that no one will be walking out or calling him a facist hardass.

“Senator Wyatt.” He extends his hand and is met by a firm handshake and a small, light smile spread on her features.

“Attorney Knope. It’s a--“ He clears his throat. “--pleasure to see you again.”

She glances down at his desk and her eyebrow raises at the mess that scatter the hardwood surface. Ben follows her gaze and is immediately flustered, quickly scrabbling and gathering loose sheets of paper and setting his empty coffee cups aside.

“How many hours have you been up?”

“Just a couple of hours at most.”

“You look like you’ve been up three days.”

Ben chuckles lightly.

“Are you insulting your State Senator?” He asks teasingly and watches as her cheeks pink slightly. Is she blushing?

“No, of course not, sir.” Ben waves his hand. He’s always been so baffled by the formalities here. Always a ‘sir’ or ‘Senator’ by even his fellow senators and represenatives. Always a title. It gets tiring and he hates it if he was being honest.

“You can call me Ben. I’m sure after calling me a ‘facist hardass’ you’ve earned that privilege.”

“Again, I am so sorry Sena--“ Ben squints at her playfully. “I mean, Ben. Like it said in my emails and messages to your secretary, I may get a little bit passionate when I’m talking about the things I care about and I’ve been told that I don’t react well to people not taking my side which is why I became a lawyer so that I make my living convincing people to take my side.”

He laughs because he imagines a young Leslie Knope arguing her way through life and ending up becoming the sucessful lawyer that she was. He’s not going to lie; it definitely suits her.

“It’s not problem at all, I swear. Now Attorney Knope--“

“Leslie.”

“Huh?”

“You can call me Leslie.” She smiles and there’s a feeling that flutters in the pit of his stomach but he ignores it and gestures to the seat in front of him.

“So, you wanted to talk about my bill.”

The meeting ends with a tiny bit of frustration and her almost walking out of his office, but it’s better than the last door-slamming meeting they had, so Ben considers it a success.

\---

He hears from her a total of 28 times until they meet again at The Governor's Ball in Pawnee. 

He’s completely swamped with work that he doesn’t have time to meet with her again, but she still insists on trying to contact him and her scoreboard of ways to contact him was getting more and more impressive. (It was also pissing Grace off, who stormed into his office a week before and almost demanded a restraining order for this woman. Ben had laughed and promised to take her out to dinner instead.)

It was 13 messages with Grace, 5 emails, 2 text messages, and 8 letters sent by mail.

(He would admire her persistence if her persistence weren’t so madly irritating)

“Senator Wyatt?” He’s leaning against the bar, a vodka soda condensating in his palm and exhaustion dripping into his blood after that brutal meeting with the Governer when her perky voice interrupts his thoughts. Ben turns his head to see her, curves tightly encased in a red lace-y fabric that causes his mildy alcohol hazed mind to take a second look.

“Attorney Knope, fancy seeing you here.”

“I’m an Indiana-native and got my law degree at Indiana University. I owe everything that I am to Indiana, of course I’d be at the Governer’s Ball.” She cocks her head slightly and okay, she was looking prettier than usual. Her hair was curled and pulled in a cute ponytail while her lips were painted with the same red as her dress. Even her toes looked pretty in her shoes. 

(And now, he feels like he's being a creep.) 

“So, you come here often?” He’s referring to the city, which is... unique at best. It was mostly overrun with raccoons and toddlers who were probably twice or thrice the normal average. She laughs and he smiles, tipping a bit more vodka into his throat because he’d need it if she wanted to talk about the bill again.

“Of course, I grew up in Pawnee.”

“You grew up in Pawnee?” She nods, resting her glass right next to his.

“Pawnee born and raised. I actually wanted to be in local government, but after one of my professors in college said that I’d make a pretty damn good lawyer, I figured that a law degree would help me better for when I actually run.” Ben nods because that does sound like a great idea. He had considered pursuing a law degree in the beginning of college, but after Ice Town had happened, he figured that fiscal responsibility was something he needed more.

“So, you want this to be your shebang one day?”

She blushes, glancing around at the room full of government officials and mildly important political figures and shrugs.

“Probably, but President is what I really want to be.”

“Well, you have my vote.”

She’s silent for a moment, before shifting nervously and turning to him.

“Really?”

“Yeah, I think you’d make a great President. I mean, you’re clearly passionate about a lot of important political stances, some that I definitely _don’t_ agree on, but I think passion is something a lot of presidents lack sometimes.”

“They’re running the country, of course they have passion.”

Ben tuts playfully, sipping a little bit more of his drink.

“Presidents feel a sense of duty running a country and I’m sure you do too, but passion? Passion is more important. It’s what fills your bones and drives you to stay up for 36 hours straight because you want to do something good for your country. A lot of presidents stress out and think that what they’re doing isn’t enough most of the time, but with passion, you always drive to do everything you can at the beginning instead of worrying that what you’re doing isn’t enough.”

She’s silent, again, and Ben thinks he’s never heard her be this silent on anything. It makes him a little uneasy, how she was looking at him so intently he thinks that she’s peering straight into his soul and hearing how his brain is telling him that she is ridiculousy nerve-wracking and confident and beautiful.

Wow, okay, maybe he should cool it with the vodka.

She clears her throat and picks up her glass of wine before taking a thoughtful sip.

“And you? Any plans of running again?”

“Running again? I just got elected into office.”

“Yeah, but you’re obviously already doing a great job, so you must be thinking about your re-election or at least running for a higher position. Maybe the US Senate?”

“Well, I have four years to go and major commitment issues so I’m not thinking about re-election just yet.”

Leslie giggles, reaching to brush a gentle hand against his forearm. Ben watches as her small, dainty fingers straighten out the folded sleeve of his Oxford and can’t help but gulp at the passing electricity that radiates from the tips. He glances up at her, eyes trained on the movement of her lips.

Have they always looked that soft?

“With the way I’ve seen you work, there’s no doubt that you’re going to get re-elected.” There’s something flirty about the way she says it, accompanied by the subtle squeeze of his forearm, that causes more than clean thoughts to form in Ben’s alochol-dipped consciousness.

He’s about to say something about the way her clavicle was exposed in that dress, because honestly he can’t focus on anything else but the smooth landscape of her skin and the alcohol was already raging in the rapids of his blood, the words already teetering dangerously on the tip of his tongue when a brunette suddenly shows up and tugs on Leslie’s arm.

“Hey Leslie, one of the donors wants to talk to you about supporting their-- oh hi.” Leslie clears her throat and looks back to Ben, who is still slightly too enthralled by the shape of her collarbone.

“Ben, this is my best friend and current, uh, political advisor, nurse, and all around beautiful person Ann Perkins. Ann, this is State Senator Ben Wyatt.” The girl, who Leslie introduced as Ann, extends her hand.

“Hi, Senator Wyatt, it’s nice to meet you.” He shakes her hand and smiles politely at her.

“Please, call me Ben. Are you also here to try and convince me not to push my bill?” He asks playfully as Leslie blushes and shakes her head.

“Uh, this is the Senator who’s pushing the bill for mandated fiscal responsibility for Indiana Local Governments.”

“Oh.” An expression of realization dawns on the new girl’s face. “ _Oh. This_ is Ben.”

Ann glances at Leslie with a knowing expression but Leslie quickly shushes her and motions to people on the other side of the room.

“Just go talk to the donors and I’ll catch you later, okay?” Ann relucatantly nods before shooting Leslie a playful wink and walking to the people Leslie had pointed out.

What was that all about?

“Sorry about that.”

“No, don’t worry.” Ben is interrupted by the sudden movement in his pocket. He sighs before reaching into his pocket to grab his vibrating phone. It was a message from Grace with some new emergency about his budget appraisal that he submitted to the Governor.

“Duty calls?”

“Unfortunately State Senate is one of the only jobs I've had where I have people telling me their are emergencies at 12 am on a Sunday, but I have to resolve this before I meet with the Governor again tomorrow so I think I’m going to have to bounce.” He types out a quick reply to Grace, saying that he’ll meet her in his motel room so they can fix whatever the Governor needed fixed, before shooting Leslie a smile.

“So, I’m assuming you’ll be in my office in Indianapolis sometime in the near future to continue to argue about budgets?” He asks teasingly. She giggles and nods.

“You can count on it.”

He watches her walk away and swear that her hips sway just for him. Ben runs a hand through his hair and downs what’s left of his vodka before deciding that it was only the alcohol that was making him think things about Leslie Knope.

\---

“Hey Wyatt, how’s that bill on mandating budgets for towns in financial crisis?” Ben’s train of thought is suddenly interrupted by Governor Gunderson popping his head through the door. Ben is suddenly surprised to see the Governor pops his head into his office, which is unusual, because the Governor is usually in Indiana for the most part. He clears his throat and shuffles through his papers until he finds his progress report for the bill.

“Um, it’s doing okay, sir. I mean, there are still a few fine points that need tweaking and not to mention I’m getting a bit of flak from the public--“ Actually, it was just Leslie and two other groups, both of who were madly conservative Christian groups who didn’t want money allocated to Planned Parenthood since Ben had deemed it mid-priority. “--But it’s getting there, why do you ask?”

“Well, I had the State office do audits of some of the towns and they’ve predicted that at least 40% of them will be or about to be in a financial crisis within the next two years, so I’m expediting your bill.”

“Y-You’re what, sir?”

“Don’t make me repeat myself, Wyatt. I want your bill done and in its first reading in two weeks. By the time your bill has passed the floor, I’ll sign it and I’ll move to have it in effect immediately. Congratulations. Your bill is about to become an official state law.”

\---

“They’re expediting your bill?!” A livid Leslie Knope comes into his office, rage clear on her face as she walks in right when he’s briefing his staff. She takes all of them, mostly him, by surprise, especially because she is wearing such a tight fitting black dress that he’s sure she hadn’t planned to be in the State Assembly right now.

“Um.” He blinks rapidly, trying to determine why Leslie Knope was standing in the middle of his office at 6:30 am in the morning with that dress on. “Good morning, Attorney Knope.”

Leslie seems to suddenly be aware of where she is and glances at Ben’s staff, who are all staring at her like she had grown three heads.

“Good morning, Senator. Senator’s staff.” She glances around nervously, but Ben swoops in to save her.

“Alright guys, like I said, I just need those fax reports sent out and Charlie, I need that consolidated list of local government heads. We can continue this briefing later.” The staff nods and file out of the room, some of them throwing odd looks at Leslie before Grace finally closes the door.

“So, I heard that they were expediting your bill.”

Ben clears his throat nervously. Why was he so nervous? Were his palms sweating? Could Leslie _see_ that his palms were sweating?

“They are. The Governor wanted to expedite it so that he could pass it by the end of this year. Several audits came back showing that 40% of cities in Indiana were on the verge of financial crisis.”

“That’s three months away. We still haven’t settled what you’re going to do about parks budgets!”

“Well, in all honesty Leslie, I don’t have to settle with you on anything about what to do with the parks budget. As long as my fellow representatives and the Governor see this bill as fit, it will pass.”

“As I am aware of state legislative laws, you need to hold a committee hearing to address the new bill. Ben, I will bring down my entire law firm _and_ the city of Pawnee to that committee hearing.”

She’s right. His first committee hearing was due in a month, since they had just finished the first reading yesterday. He sighs, running a hand through his hair. If Leslie Knope was anything, it was determined and one of the best lawyers in Indiana, so if there was someone who could find a way to table his bill, it would be her.

“Okay, look, I know you want to work something out about the parks budget but it’s such a minute clause to the entire bill that will save local governments more money _and_ heartache in the future. I'm sure you would prefer closing parks for a few weeks rather than firing people from their jobs.”

“I do, but I know there's a way where we don't have to do either. Just let me find a way to help local governments make money. I promise you, I will find a fiscally sound way to keep the budget for the Parks and Recreations departments of Indiana by the end of this month. I’ll even help you defend it to the Governor. If not--“ Leslie takes a deep breath.

“I’ll step back and let the bill go. I won’t even flinch that you’re _closing parks_ \--“ She says it like the statement was dripping in disgust. “--to save local governments.”

Ben crosses his arms and mulls on it. It wouldn’t be that big of a loss if he did let her pursue this. If in the end, she didn’t come up with anything, he could just push forward with the bill and it’ll get passed as planned. But, if she did find a way to ease the budget off of the Parks and Recreations departments, it means that she found a way to either make sure the governments were fiscally sound or generate revenue. It was practically win-win for him.

“Okay, fine, but I’m giving you by the end of the mo---“ His words are cut off by two arms wrapping snugly around his neck and a faint smell of vanilla wafting into his nose. Ben awkwardly pats her back, not sure how to react to the sudden display of affection.

“Thank you. I promise I won’t let you down.” Leslie squeezes him one more time before grabbing her bag and bolting out of the office, ear already pressed against her cellphone.

He’s sure that she won’t let him down.

She was Leslie Knope after all.

\---


End file.
